Need to reduce BMI how many carbs/calories

[annealex1]

Ive been running through the threads to find a post t about how many carbs and calories to aim for. I read one post which mentioned the writer having great success with between 10 - 20 carbs a day.
It is almost six in the evening now and I have had 12.2 carbs and 715 calories in total for the day and trying to see what I can eat tonight to take my Metformin.

 

[grovesy]

How many carbs is very personal. I could not do that low.

 

[Docb]

My goodness Annealex, that is a bit extreme! There are lots of threads talking about carb intake and what you get from them is the idea that carb reduction is effective in reducing blood glucose but not a lot of agreement on how much intake you should aim for.

I aim at around 90 grams per day split between three meals, down from around 250-300 grams per day when my diabetes went wonk. My blood glucose is under control and at that level, I can eat a diet that I am content with. To get lower I would have to make changes which I might not be able to sustain.

@Drummer aims for a much lower number and more importantly, she is content with the eating regime. Others aim at around the 100 gram mark.

Can I suggest you reconstruct a food diary for few days intake from a couple of weeks ago and see what carb level you used to eat and work from there. Assuming that will several hundred grams per day, you could set a target of half the value, hold to it, and see what happens by monitoring your blood glucose rise a couple of hours after eating. That way there is a fair chance you can get a diet plan which is a modification - some smaller portion sizes, a couple of eliminations and substitutions - of what you are used to. I think that is a way of getting a diet which you can work with and which will become the norm.

Calorie intake is not something I have any real experience but there I would do a bit of research to find out how many calories would be considered necessary for somebody of my age and activity levels and set a target a bit below that. Then I would then watch the bathroom scales to check on progress and adjust as necessary.

I'm not sure that heading to extremes is going to give you something sustainable. The trick is to develop a new lifestyle that will be your norm for the future. To my mind, it is much more likely you will get there if you take things methodically, at a steady pace, rather than rushing to extremes and risk running out of steam.

 

[rebrascora]

I would agree that is too extreme, at least in the first instance. I would reduce it slowly and steadily. Those sort of levels are not sustainable and may well cause you to yo-yo. I would probably aim for somewhere between 80 and 100g carbs a day (particularly if you were previously a big carb eater) and see how you get on, but be guided by your BG meter.

I find it far too complicated to count calories as well as carbs, so I basically eat more fat if I need to stabilise my weight and less if I need to lose some..... but that works on the principle that I currently eat quite A LOT of fat to maintain my current BMI on a low carb diet!

 

[annealex1]

Well, thank goodness for that. I will aim for around 80 and see how I get on. I will also look at calories . I need to knock 10 off my bmi and need the right route. Thanks so much

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Well, thank goodness for that. I will aim for around 80 and see how I get on. I will also look at calories . I need to knock 10 off my bmi and need the right route. Thanks so much

Glad you’ve had some helpful pointers @annealex1 - aspeople have suggested, the amount of carbs a day is a very personal thing both for what each individual needs to keep their BG relatively happy, and also so that they have an enjoyable, varied, flexible diet that suits them.

There’s no ‘one size fits all’ and ideally you will develop a way of eating that you so enjoy, which optimises your weight, and which you feel so energised and well eating that there will be no need for you to hanker after anything you’ve decided don’t fit well into it.

Its also much easier on the body to adjust things gradually so that the fine blood vessels have time to adapt 🙂

 

[Eddy Edson]

I find this tool very useful: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/bwp

A body weight planner from the US' leading obesity research group. How many calories should I eat combined with how much exercise, to reach a target weight.

 

[trophywench]

Plus you may easily surprised by how much weight you lose with just cutting a percentage of your carb intake, even with adding more veg to try and make it less obvious on the plate. Plus there's one very very old trick when trying to drop weight which wasn't rocket science even 50 years ago - try using a smaller plate!

 

[Drummer]

I am sorry I did not see your post - I would have advised eating a good dinner to up your calories and carbs to a more normal level.
Although I am very sensitive to carbs, I started off eating 50 gm of carbs a day because that is what I could maintain easily on Atkins - it is my CCLM, if you know the term. Many people do seem to be able to maintain at that level, and I certainly would not advise going straight from a high carb diet to that level if you aren't totally confident - It did shake my metabolism, but I just ate three grapes and had a warn drink a couple of times with the tremors started - I am pretty much quake proof.
Diabetes is an inability to deal with carbs. If you eat a diet which has only the amount of carbs you can cope with, or a little less if you wish to hurry back to normal, then that is what seems to happen. I saw it for myself and over the years since then many others have reported the same thing.
There is no need for punishing regimes or starvation diets when a simple alteration in carbohydrates will do the same thing - and I suspect it works better and faster as it is not putting any strain on the metabolism, rather the reverse, it is removing the stress on it. I was concentrating on blood glucose alone at first and was rather shocked to discover how much weight I'd lost without even trying.

 

[DaveB]

Hi. First forget Calories as they are not a food group and not helpful to us. Think food groups and keep the Carbs down whilst having enough Fats and Proteins to keep you feeling full. We all have varying amount of carbs. Personally I try to keep below 150gm/day but many have much less with good success.